Poor Unfortunate Soul
by that-first-glance-feeling
Summary: (Speculation for 4.15 based off the scene with Killian and Ursula on the promo.) Killian has wronged the sea goddess, and now she's come to exact revenge by taking away the most precious thing he's got. After enchanting his necklace and throwing him on the sea, she morphs into his appearance and goes after Emma.
1. Part 1

**A/N: Based off the promo for 4.15 and off the first line prompt I got sent a while ago on tumblr. I've been waiting for Ursula and Killian's backstory with baited breath since before the hiatus and this is the result of my mind going ballistic on the last week of waiting. I hope you enjoy this! xxx**

**ps: I have NOT abandoned Far Away, I promise! This prompt was just long overdue, and I promise I'll update FA(FFTL) before the new episode!**

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**Poor Unfortunate Soul**

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Now that the telltale glow of the false Killian's necklace was already fading out, all that Killian could do was watch with darkening vision as his double smiled down at him, turned, and strode up the beach - toward the town, toward _Emma_ \- and scream soundlessly from a throat robbed of its voice.

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He'd had no time to react, not a moment to gather his thoughts when Ursula grabbed him as soon as he stepped into the woods to meet her, brutally squeezing all air out of him with her tentacles wrapped tightly around his middle, making his lungs feel like they were about to burst from the pressure. Thus she kept a tight, suffocating grip on him as a well-known purple smoke enveloped them both and the next thing he knew, they were standing in the middle of a ship's deck - none other than the _Jolly Roger_ itself.

Before he could ask the sea witch how on earth she put her tentacles on his ship, the one he'd traded with a band of rival pirates for the bean that would allow him to find Emma, he heard that screechy, characteristically despicable laughter rolling along the sea breeze. He clenched his jaw unconsciously, grinding his teeth together with anger.

"Thought you'd seen the last of me, dearie?"

The next moments passed by in a haze. Gold was amusing himself more than his listeners with the quintessential Dark One's monologue, going on about his brilliant alliance with the queens of darkness, explaining how he intended to change the fairytales and rob the heroes of their happy endings, which the villains now would finally get, and so on and so forth.

Killian, however, was ignoring every single word of it. It all seemed so obvious now that the man was standing here in front of his eyes, and he can't help thinking he should have known it all along.

As Gold himself said, he was his oldest "friend". If anyone in town could have realised that Ursula and Cruella wouldn't be able to trick Rumple, figure out his plans, ditch him and find their way to Storybrooke, it was the pirate who had known his arch-enemy for centuries. But he failed once again.

(It seems like that's all he's been doing lately.)

Yet he can't help ignoring the Dark One's ramblings when Ursula is shooting daggers at him with her eyes. Sure, it was a relief that her tentacles had recoiled from his body, but he knew there was something downright ominous about the smirk that suddenly found its way to her lips, a thoroughly satisfied little thing that read _looks like the roles are reversed and _**you're** _the one who's not welcome on _**my** _ship now._

He knew it was coming. He could feel his pirate-y senses tingling all over his skin with that unrelenting look in her eyes, scanning him from head to hook and back up to meet his remorsefully blue gaze. He just knew in his bones that whatever Gold had planned for him, or more likely for the whole town, Ursula had certainly added her personal touch of cruelty to the villain's agenda to exact revenge on his poor unfortunate soul.

The second Gold stopped muttering his overused phrases addressing the last day of Killian's life (_Enjoy the last sunset you'll ever watch from your ship, pirate_) was the second he saw a tentacle darting towards him from Ursula's side, its tip wrapping around his necklace and roughly tugging it from his neck.

"You took something very precious from me, Hook. It's about time I show you what that feels like."

"You're referring to that hackneyed thing that's long been out of vogue? You'd be doing me a favour getting rid of it." Killian replied with a scoff. "I'm quite surprised, actually. I never thought you were the sentimental type, Ursula."

"You and I both know I'm not, but _you_ are. And I'm not talking about your stupid necklace, captain." Killian gulped hard, the perverse gleam in her eye sending a chill down his spine. "You see, there's a tiny little problem with Rumple's plan. There's a certain saviour who's powerful enough to take us all down before we get a chance at our happy endings, so we have to get rid of her first. I'm sure you of all people will understand the need to sacrifice others for your own gain."

"I swear to all the gods, Ursula, if you touch Emma not even your father could-"

"Don't you dare bring him up, Hook. Not after everything you've done. You can't stop us, and this - " she placed the chain with the skull and the cutlass pendants around her own neck, making a dark green glow appear around it with an elegant flick of her wrist, "- this will allow me to get close enough to her. The poor girl was silly enough to trust you, imagine how crushed she'll be when she finds out how wrong she was about you. Does she even suspect what you did?"

"I was going to tell her." Killian replied in a small, inward voice.

"Just like you were going to be honest and not trick me into making the biggest mistake of my life? Of course you were, Hook."

"Ursula, I can't say how much I regret what I did to you. I wish I could change it, I truly do, but I can't. All I can say is how profoundly sorry I am."

"Well, you're right. Nothing can change it now. Which is why you're gonna pay for it." Her slimy tentacles quickly came around his ribcage, squeezing and crushing him again. "You must have missed being out in the water. Allow me to refresh your memory a little." She added, lifting Killian off of his beloved wooden planks and chucking him into the sea.

He felt the icy water invading his nose and mouth, simultaneously freezing his limbs from within and forcing his thoughts into a halt. The temperature shock was too abrupt, too vivid, _too much_, and he was barely resisting the urge to stop fighting and let the sea claim him to its depths, the unbearable weight on him starting to comfortably lull him into an exhausted slumber.

As if his heart was well aware of his priorities, even at the cusp of unconsciousness, his eyes shot open and all he saw in front of him were green eyes and a radiant smile and golden hair. His angelic siren appeared in front of his eyes, curling her finger and entreating him to not let himself be pulled under.

So he kicked his legs and stretched out his arms, summoning all that was left of his energy to find the surface again. He swam, swam, and swam some more until it felt like a thousand microscopic needles were prickling his limbs all over. He gave all he had left but breathing again seemed like a distant dream just out of his reach, and it wasn't until his head broke out of the water and he started gasping violently for air that he stopped doubting whether or not he was still alive.

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Killian finally reached the beach and let his body fall limp on the sand, as his sore muscles and flaming lungs would not suffer him to stand up anytime soon, much less run across town to find Emma before-

He looked up when he noticed a shadow on the sand coming closer, and that's when he saw him - actually, he saw himself, the very own Killian Jones standing in front of him, that perverse smirk on his face the only thing giving Ursula away in her otherwise perfect disguise. That and the faint green glow disappearing from the charms on his necklace.

"Look at that, you made it out alive. Too bad you won't be there to watch the show after all this effort." Ursula spit out in his own lilting accent (_bloody hell, did he actually sound like that all the time?_) before kicking him mercilessly on the ribs and striding away.

In all of Killian's 300+ years of life nothing has been as eerily torturing as listening to his own voice taunting him now, except for imagining himself hurting the woman he loves. Lifetimes of self-loathing and regrets had long established this particular scenario as his worst nightmare, though he never thought he'd be off the stage while his non-self performed all the heart breaking and hope crushing.

But, if there's one thing Killian Jones is good at, it's surviving.

And since breaking Emma's heart would most certainly be the death of him, he decided he wouldn't break his promise to her now.

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**Review and I might add a part 2 with the outcome of this? *bats eyelashes***


	2. Part 2

**A/N:** PART TWO! *throws glitter* (kindly betaed by tumblr user always-comment-on-the-mutton)

For those of you who were expecting Ursula to take away Killian's voice along with his necklace, I decided I didn't want to miss out on the beautiful speech Killian gives when he finds his double with Emma. I hope you can forgive me and enjoy this anyway! Please do leave a review as I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts on this!

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Emma felt her heart sink as she burst through the library doors looking for Killian. He was supposed to meet her for lunch over half an hour ago, and while she was okay with him being late for some reason - although that would be a first, the man had been religiously punctual for as long as she'd known him - she started getting seriously worried when he didn't even pick up his phone. Not one of the seven times she'd called.

He _always_ picked up before the third ring when she called him. She knew he could be unexpectedly busy with something, but if that was the case he would certainly let her know. He wasn't one to leave her in the dark, ever, and to make matters worse her instincts were twisting her insides into knots with the sickening feeling that something was very, very wrong.

Emma hated playing the paranoid girlfriend, but when you live in a quaint little town like Storybrooke, where there's always one hellbeast or another lurking around the corner, you tend to assume the worst when people who are always at your beck and call suddenly can't be reached. And she still remembered quite well how the last time she had tried to ignore her instincts, Killian had nearly paid with his life.

On opening the doors, however, Emma walked straight in on Belle and Will kissing and with no scowling overprotective pirates in sight. The two lovebirds were clearly too occupied with one another to notice her presence. She cleared her throat awkwardly, making them pull away with flushed faces and embarrassed smiles. Will immediately turned away and began taking books from the cart in a shaky attempt to place them back on the shelves, a task they apparently had no problem putting aside for other more _pressing matters_, while Belle walked over to meet Emma at the entrance as a deepening crimson stealing over her cheeks.

Emma asked if Belle had seen or heard from Killian since the night before, when the four of them had been out for a awkwardly but friendly dinner at Granny's, to which the librarian replied no. "We didn't make plans to do more research together today either, otherwise he would be coming in soon." Belle added with an apologetic smile. "You tried calling him?"

"Seven times, but I'm guessing he ran out of batteries. He always picks up quickly when I call."

"I know, he would drop whatever we were working on and rush to get to his _talking phone_, as he calls it," the librarian said, hoping to get a smile out of Emma with no success. Reading the worry etched on her friend's face too easily, Belle placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and gave her a sympathetic smile this time. "I'm sure he's okay, though. He's old enough to know how to take care of himself."

"That he really is," Emma says with a chuckle.

As if on cue, the pirate in question entered the library at that moment with a strange expression on his face that is not lost on Emma. But, for the moment being, she let her relief in seeing him there take over any other responses she might have had to the way he was moving with an overly eager swing to his step, or the decidedly sinister look in his eyes. She mentally shook herself, realising she was probably getting paranoid to the point where she was looking for signs that something was wrong with him.

The first thing he did upon greeting her was announce that they needed to talk, with an urgency in his tone that had her heart racing with worry again. Emma could only nod and follow suit as he rushed out of the library without so much as a hello kiss, trying to ignore the fact that he didn't even seem to consider taking her hand (a sweet habit they'd fallen into effortlessly somewhere along the way) and not to take it as a sign that there was _definitely_ something wrong.

He preceded her into a secluded alley behind Granny's, where he stopped and finally turned to face her again. If she didn't know him any better, she would have listened to a nagging voice in the back of her mind commenting on the barely perceptible glint of cunning in his eyes, which almost looked like they were sparking a slightly darker hue of blue today.

There was something far more _Hook _than _Killian _about his present demeanour, but Emma had seen on more than one occasion how the unwanted appearance of ghosts from his past had an impact on him. Even though she didn't know whether he felt worse now with Ursula being out and about in Storybrooke than when she had asked him to tell her about Milah, Emma considered this to be a similar unbidden reaction, somewhat like the way his sad smiles wouldn't quite reach his eyes on that day.

He finally took her hand, offering her an eerily _different_ smile as he gave it a light squeeze, and Emma knew she couldn't be just imagining the way his perpetually warm hand had never felt this cold. He looked disturbed to say the least, and had probably hurried to find her given the urgency lacing his words. She told herself to let it go. Whatever it was that was on his mind, he looked like he really needed to have this conversation with her now.

"Emma, love, I-" he began to say, stuttering a little, and she couldn't recall the last time (if there ever was one) she'd heard Killian stuttering. "I have something extremely important to ask you." He paused for a long, excruciating moment before continuing.

"How do you feel about me?" He finally added with a nervous smile.

"What?!" Emma started, barely resisting the urge to withdraw her hand, because as much as she hated being pressed about her feelings, she'd hate herself so much more for crushing his.

"I know this is a little abrupt-"

"Abrupt? Killian, what is going on? You're acting strange again. Are you okay?" Her free hand wandered to his chest and landed right above his heart of its own accord, the steady beat beneath her palm giving her little to no comfort for the very first time. No, something must have happened for him to be suddenly questioning her feelings when he'd always been perfectly happy to let her take her time to let him in. It was too unlike Killian.

Emma looked into his eyes and there it was - or, rather, there it wasn't. She couldn't tell exactly what _it_ was, but there was something missing in his gaze. What she could tell was that he was holding back. She had recently learned to recognise instantly the particular way he looked with a shadow cast upon his features when he was hiding something from her. She could only assume some other ghost from his past had come to haunt him and he was feeling insecure about their relationship again. Or maybe Ursula had happened; maybe he bumped into her again and she said something that made him this... _mess_. Maybe-

"I'm fine, love. It's just that, in all the time we've been together, you've always been so guarded about your feelings," he said. And with a frown marring her soft features she was ready to retort when he continued. "And I do understand, Emma, I know why you're like that. But with the queens of darkness in town, with everything I have yet to tell you about my past with Ursula, I can't help but worry about how this will affect us."

"Killian, I told you there's nothing you've done in your past that could drive me away," Emma said after letting out a deep breath. At the same time that it piqued her how he seemed too strange, it bothered her even more how he didn't seem _that strange_. Is this what he'd been thinking all along? "I trust you, and I promised I'd always choose to see the best in you, remember?"

"I know you said that, love. But, surely you can't be certain of something you don't know. And you know how much you mean to me, Emma. I don't want to lose you."

She had never seen him this, suddenly so insecure about their relationship when he'd always been the one with an unwavering faith when it came to them. This wasn't like Killian at all, at least not the _when-I-win-your-heart-and-I-will-win-it_ Killian she knew. But here he was, standing right in front of her, moving forward to step into her personal space like he'd done countless times before, and his smell was as intoxicatingly good as it's always been, but something she couldn't quite put her finger on was just not right about him.

"Well, you're not going to, Killian. Why are you suddenly so insecure about us? You know how I feel about you. After everything, you must know." She said, her voice almost breaking on the last sentence. Of course he knew, right? Whenever she worried he might not know how deep her feelings ran for him - after all, she'd never been very good with words - he would do some of his little gestures with a huge meaning behind it, reassuring her of just how well he knew her, especially her heart.

(_You're something of an open book._)

"Do I, Emma?" Killian said, tilting his head to the side with something that looked too much like resentment for her liking fuming behind his eyes. "You've never actually said the words to me."

Emma took a step back with her mouth hanging open in shock, quickly closing it when she decided no words were going to come out. Not right then, not like that. She crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin to look at him. Defensiveness had always been her preferred MO when she was being pressured. Being emotionally pushed _by him_, though,made her want to run away and hide somewhere she could allow the tears that were threatening to form in the corners of her eyes to fall free. "Well, neither have you."

He huffed, _actually huffed_ when they were discussing something as serious as their feelings for each other. "If that's what you were waiting for then, by all means, love, I shall remedy that right now." She swallowed hard and let her eyes fall shut, not wanting to believe he was about to say the words the two of them had been dancing around for so long _like this._ Even though the way he was looking at her still had something akin to tenderness about it, he was just not being himself, and the moment was completely wrong. How could he not see that? "Emma, I lo-"

"Killian, please don't say it now," Emma cut him before he could ruin the moment even more. She still couldn't open her eyes but she was satisfied enough that she'd managed to stop him from saying the words.

"But-"

"Swan! Get away from him!" She heard the very same lilting voice cutting itself off, the last few words sounding more distant to her ears than the one that had been talking to her all this time somehow. Emma opened her eyes.

"What the hell..." She breathed out, her voice apparently gone as she saw Killian turning in the direction of the other voice -his own voice - to find _a second Killian_ running towards them, looking soaked to the bone and extremely distraught.

He immediately moved to block Emma from his clone, the fast approaching Killian, throwing a protective arm around her waist and guiding her to stay behind him. "Who or what the bloody hell are you?" The one standing in front of her all but shouted.

"I would ask you the same thing if I didn't know already, Ursula." The second Killian spat out, with an angry tone Emma had only ever heard in his voice when he talked about "the bloody crocodile."

"Ursula?" Emma said, pushing his arm away and moving to stand between the two men, where she was finally able to take a good look at the drenched pirate whose eyes looked so much more familiar and welcoming to her, noticing how he was missing his trademark necklace.

"Emma, stay away from that sea witch. Don't you see what she's trying to do? She wants you to believe she's me." The first Killian tried to plead with her, his voice sounding believable enough, if it wasn't for the fact that it sounded nothing like when she had abandoned him shackled on the giant's castle at the top of a beanstalk years ago.

She looked back and forth between the two of them and found herself speechless again. Her mind was rushing and she didn't even know where to begin with her thoughts on this madness. Had it not been for the extremely atypical behaviour of the first Killian in the last few moments, she would have been certain the furthest one was an exact copy of the pirate she had fallen for. But now she didn't know for certain, she had no way of knowing - or did she?

While her scattered thoughts were still swimming around in the confusion her mind currently was, her feelings seemed to have a pretty determined opinion on the matter.

He was been late to meet her and wouldn't pick up his phone. That in itself was very un-Killian-like. Something had definitely happened to him while he was away, of that she was sure now. But if something serious happened then it was only natural that Killian 1 would be acting all worried and insecure like that. Plus, she was the one being paranoid earlier, so there was also a chance everything she thought seemed _different_ about him was just her mind automatically looking for something to be wrong.

(She and her damned tendency to always expect the worst of everything - and everyone.)

Alright, so Killian 1's strangeness could be fairly justified. Her reason seemed willing to accept that rationale just fine. The problem was that insistent feeling in her gut saying that he was all wrong.

The soaking wet Killian seemed to read her mind then, as he started taking a few tentative steps closer with a knowing smile blooming on his lips. "You sense something's off, Emma. I know you do. You know me better than anyone, as I know you. You always call me out when I'm holding back or when I'm _not being myself_." The emphasis he placed on the last words immediately caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up and elicited an exasperated groan from Killian 1.

(She mentally added a tally mark to the column labelled _Killian 2_ for displaying one of the top requirements for being Killian Jones: excelling at reading her like an open book.)

"Trust your gut, Swan. It'll tell you what to do." He added, looking so intensely at her, as if he desperately needed her to lock eyes with him. Which is exactly what she did next, only to find a pair of baby blues that were the perfect shade of warmth and had the right sparkle in them when he looked at her. (_Why was it always his eyes?_) And just like that the matter was settled. She knew what she had to do.

"You're right, whoever you are. I know exactly what to do." Emma told the poor drenched man before turning to the first Killian and closing the distance between them in quick strides. "More importantly, _you_ were right. There's something I still need to say to you." She brought one hand up to grab the collar of his jacket as the other hand closed around his necklace and pulled him into a kiss.

Emma could hear the horrified gasp of the other Killian followed by his approaching footsteps, which stopped dead in their tracks when she pulled away from the kiss. Keeping her head mere inches away from the Killian in front of her, she looked deep into his eyes before speaking.

"I know how you kiss, too."

She tugged on the charms of his necklace without warning, taking several steps away when the chain fell open into her hand and a cloud of purple smoke surrounded the faux Killian. Emma glanced at the real one, now standing right beside her with a ridiculous smug grin on his face, before they both witnessed the fog lifting to reveal Ursula in front of them.

"My plan may have failed this time, but make no mistake. I'm getting what I want and you won't be able to stop me the next time, Hook."

"We'll see about that, Ursula." Killian said, bringing his arm around Emma's shoulders and holding her close as the sea witch vanished into thin air, literally. "Are you alright, love? She didn't hurt you?"

"I'm fine, Killian. Are _you _okay, though? Why are you dripping wet?" She asked, and he promised to tell her everything that had happened to him later, saying he was perfect now that she was him with him. Emma looked up to meet his smiling eyes and cupped his cheek, inhaling his scent greedily and letting it calm her now that she knew the real him was here, alive and well. "You know, I feel kind of weird for having kissed the wrong you"

"I'd better take that awful taste from your lips then, love." Killian says in his best low, seductive tone, before tangling his hand in her hair and kissing her senseless, pouring all his relief in knowing she was safe from Ursula, knowing she was doing the exact same to him.

"Tell me, love, did she do anything to you?" He asked when she pulled away, keeping his hand in her hair and searching her face for any sings that she'd been hurt, though he was really more afraid of what the witch may have said to her.

"She didn't do anything to me. You were just- I mean, the _fake_ you - he was just talking to me about us." His eyebrows shot up in surprise and he asked her what he had said. "He said he really needed to know how I feel about him... you..." She trailed off, taking a deep breath before continuing. "He was about to say he loved me when you showed up. I don't get it, but he just needed me to say it back to him."

He looked at her in silence for a minute pondering on her words, although he didn't seem fazed in the least by the particular topic of her conversation with the man she had believed to be him at the time.

"I think Ursula was trying to curse you, love." He finally said, tucking an errant strand of her hair behind her ear as she could see the increasing amount of concern in his eyes. "She told me you were powerful enough to stand in her way and that she needed to get rid of your powers."

"I don't understand how she was trying to curse me by making me say... you know,_ that._"

"She was probably going to make you swear on your feelings next." Killian explained after swallowing hard. "That would be enough for her to curse you."

"How do you know all that? Don't tell me you've been taking magic lessons with Regina, too," Emma said hoping to lighten the mood, but earning no more than a nervous smile from him.

"I know it because that's exactly what Zelena did to curse my lips, Swan," he said, averting his gave as a light blush appeared on his cheeks.

And that's when realisation dawned on her, together with a bittersweet ache in her chest. He'd said it to Zelena, almost a year ago, what she still didn't have the courage to say to him now. She could feel her own cheeks burning when he met her eyes again and she didn't know what to say. She just wasn't _ready_ yet.

"Killian, I-"

"Hey." He stopped her, his thumb tracing that dent on her chin he adores. "It's okay, love. I know you, and I know _us_. There's no need to worry about that." Emma smiled, because there's no way he could have heard her saying the exact same words to his double before, and with a surge of warmth spreading under her breastbone she knows she loves him for always having so much faith in them.

She loved him. It should scare her how the feeling that comes with the realisation wasn't something recent or new at all, but, surprisingly, it really didn't. And for once her stubbornness let her admit to herself what she'd been painstakingly avoiding admitting for too long now.

"Good," she told him before crashing her lips on his, letting herself be washed over with emotion as her new knowledge of the depth of their feelings for each other made her feel like her feet were about to float off of the ground. She knows she's never felt this light, this peaceful, this _blissful_ before. And if this is only the beginning of their story, she can't wait to get to their happy ending.

She _loves_ him.

But she won't tell him now. She doesn't want the words to be associated with Ursula or his past sins, or anything other than a quiet moment of their own.

She knows that when the moment is right, she will finally let the words slip out of her mouth.

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**Review? ^-^**


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